The Solesmes Congregation is an association of monasteries within the

Benedictine Confederation The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Confœderatio Benedictina Ordinis Sancti Benedicti) is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict. Origin The Benedictine Confederation is a union of monasti ...

headed by the Abbey of Solesmes.

History

The congregation was founded in 1837 by

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He h ...

as the French Benedictine Congregation, with the then newly reopened

Solesmes Abbey Solesmes Abbey or St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes'') is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper G ...

, founded by Dom

Prosper Guéranger Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger (; commonly referred to as Dom Guéranger, 4 April 1805, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France – 30 January 1875, Solesmes, France) was a French priest and Benedictine monk, who served for nearly 40 years as the Abbot of ...

, O.S.B., who wished to re-establish France's ancient and rich presence of monastic life, which had been wiped out by the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

. The first foundation of the new congregation in 1853 was

Ligugé Abbey Ligugé Abbey, formally called the Abbey of St. Martin of Ligugé (french: Abbaye Saint-Martin de Ligugé), is a French Benedictine monastery in the Commune of Ligugé, located in the Department of Vienne. Dating to the 4th century, it is the site ...

, founded by St.

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...

in 361. In course of time other daughterhouses were founded from Solesmes: in 1880 the

Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey ( es, Abadía del Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos) is a Benedictine monastery in the village of Santo Domingo de Silos in the southern part of Burgos Province in northern Spain. The monastery is named after the ...

in Spain, Glanfeuil in 1892, and Fontenelle in 1893. These four were old monasteries restored.Alston, George Cyprian. "Abbey of St. Solesmes." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 23 March 2015
/ref> The congregation's first monastery of women was St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes, founded in 1866 by Guéranger and

Cécile Bruyère Mère Cécile Bruyère (12 October 1845 – 18 March 1909) was the first abbess of St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes (''Abbaye Sainte-Cécile de Solesmes'') and a follower of Dom Prosper Guéranger in the revival of Benedictine spirituality in 19th c ...

. Some of the monasteries of the congregation, specially in France, use the pre-conciliar

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

, and most of them focus on

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe duri ...

. One of its abbeys, Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey, became internationally famous when an album its monks recorded in 1973, ''

Chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes ...

'', became a huge hit when re-released in 1994, peaking at #3 on the U.S. album charts.

List of houses

(with dates of establishment within the congregation)

Monks

(1833) *

(1853) *Marseilles Priory, now Ganagobie Abbey (1856) * Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey, Spain (1880) * Wisques Abbey 1889 * Sainte-Marie Abbey, Paris (1893) * St. Wandrille's Abbey (1894) *

Clervaux Abbey The Abbey of St. Maurice and St. Maurus of Clervaux ( lb, Benediktinerabtei hellege Moritz) (french: Abbaye Saint-Maurice et Saint-Maur de Clervaux), founded in 1890, is a Benedictine monastery in Clervaux, Luxembourg. It is a member of the Soles ...

, Luxembourg (1890) * Kergonan Abbey (1897) * St Benoît du Lac Abbey, Quebec (1912) *

Quarr Abbey Quarr Abbey ( French: ''Abbaye Notre-Dame de Quarr'') is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kwor" (rhyming with "for"). It belongs to the Catho ...

, England (1922) * Montserrat Priory, Madrid, 1939 *Schoelcher Priory, Martinique 1947 * Fontgombault Abbey, 1948 * St. Benedictusberg Abbey, Netherlands, 1951 *Leyre Abbey, Spain, 1954 * Valle de los Caidos Abbey, Spain, 1958 * Keur-Moussa Abbey, Senegal 1961 * Randol Abbey, 1971 * Triors Abbey, 1984 * Gaussan Abbey, 1994 * Palendriai Priory, Lithuania, 1998 * Clear Creek Abbey, USA, 1999

Nuns

* St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes 1866 *Wisques Abbey, 1889 * St. Michael's Abbey, Kergonan, 1898 * Ste Marthe sur le Lac Abbey, Quebec 1936 * St Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde, England 1950 * Keur-Guilaye Priory, Senegal 1970 * Le Carbet Priory, Martinique 1977 * Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, USA, 1981

References

Sources

Solesmes Congregation (website of Solesmes Abbey)
{{Authority control Benedictine congregations Religious organizations established in 1837 1837 establishments in France